Labor Dispute

Officials representing the Connecticut Children's Medical Center and local building trades conferred about 90 minutes Friday with two Hartford city councilmen about the 3-week-old labor dispute that has slowed construction of the $89.8 million pediatric hospital. No resolution was reached Friday, but talks are to be resumed next week. The councilmen, John B. O'Connell and Anthony F. DiPentima, gave few other details about their mediation, which followed a similar meeting late Thursday, convened by Hartford Mayor Michael P. Peters.

A 10-year labor dispute between Hartford's Avery Heights assisted living community and about 180 current and former union workers appears to have entered its final stage, with the workers on the verge of a payout that could come to more than $3 million. On Oct. 13, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, without comment, to hear Avery's appeal of a lower court's decision that it must pay workers back wages, interest and pension contributions. That previous ruling, issued by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals last year, upheld a National Labor Relations Board ruling that Avery had unlawfully hired permanent replacements for the striking workers.

A labor dispute that has slowed work at the construction site of a new children's hospital in Hartford appears to be nearing -- or at -- an end. Pickets, who for about five weeks stood vigil on Seymour Street, were absent from the construction site Wednesday morning, hospital officials said. Unionized workers, who have been honoring the picket line, returned to their jobs. "We're just glad that everybody's back," said Norm Curtis, a senior vice president at the parent company of the Connecticut Children's Medical Center, better known in the area as the Newington Children's Hospital.

It has been more than two years since labor disputes at the Hartford Marriott Downtown marked the hotel's opening, chasing away some business from it and the Connecticut Convention Center next door. Wrapped up in the tussle was a legal fight between the city and the hotel's owner, the Waterford Group, over whether a city "living wage" ordinance applied. Waterford said it didn't. Mayor Eddie A. Perez insisted it did, and he threatened to revoke a 15-year tax deal worth an estimated $30 million.

In what has become a sadly predictable refrain, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra announced Friday that four more concerts have been called off because of the labor dispute with its players. The dispute is nearing its fifth month. The affected concerts are a classical subscription pair, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, and a pops pair, scheduled for Friday and Saturday. All four were to have taken place at the Bushnell Memorial. The announcement brings the number of lost concerts to 19, more than half the symphony's total season.

In a bid to win reinstatement for workers fired during a bitter unionizing drive at a Torrington company, federal labor officials are taking the unusual step of appealing directly to a federal judge. Officials at the Hartford office of the National Labor Relations Board will file a request in U.S. District Court this week for an injunction against Mark Industries, said John Sauter, a spokesman for the board. The injunction would require the company to reinstate three workers fired during a United Auto Workers organizing drive that started in February.

The United Church of Christ will move its 2007 national convention out of Hartford if the dispute between labor unions and the operators of the Connecticut Convention Center is not resolved by June 6, and the organization has asked the governor to intervene. In a letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell Monday, the organization -- an umbrella group of Congregational churches -- said that it will soon be forced to relocate its 8,000- to 10,000-person event scheduled for June 2007. Organizers say the event would use 18 area hotels for a week and could bring $10 million in economic benefit to the state.

For much of the day Monday, it looked like Adriaen's Landing was finally ready to get its final legislative approval. But just before midnight, a festering labor dispute between the project's developers, union leaders and legislators threw the entire process into chaos again. By early this morning, it wasn't clear when the bill might get final approval from the full General Assembly. The legislative session ends at midnight Wednesday. After a long day of talking and arm-twisting, legislators and Gov. John G. Rowland thought they had a labor agreement hammered out Monday that appeared to clear the way for a final approval of the $771 million Adriaen's Landing project as soon as today.

Like the ruling or not (most likely, some Old Saybrook leaders hate it), the state labor board has determined that town police officers laid off in 2003 were wronged and should be rehired. Officials can appeal the decision, but the interests of the town would be better served if leaders resolved to make amends and leave this rancorous period behind. The officers -- Brian Ziolkovski, Robert Scavello, Larry Smith and Cynthia Huckel -- were laid off in 2003 while their union was in the thick of a bitter contract dispute with the town.

When a labor dispute at the Connecticut Convention Center and its neighboring Hartford Marriott Downtown erupted into a boycott and lost business in summer 2006, Mayor Eddie A. Perez said his goal was to work as an honest broker, protecting the investment of the city and the rights of workers. But in papers filed recently in state Superior Court, the hotel's owner says Perez's priorities were set by union halls, not city hall, and that Perez was a union puppet. The owner wants Perez to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit filed over whether city labor law should govern the dispute.

Mayor Eddie A. Perez will not have to sit for a deposition in a labor dispute with the owners of the new Downtown Hartford Marriott hotel -- at least not yet, a state judge has ruled. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Beach Jr. this week told the hotel's owners they must first put Matt Hennessy, Perez's chief of staff, under oath for questioning. "It makes sense to the court, in perhaps an exercise of caution, to allow the deposition of the chief of staff to be taken first," Beach wrote.

When a labor dispute at the Connecticut Convention Center and its neighboring Hartford Marriott Downtown erupted into a boycott and lost business in summer 2006, Mayor Eddie A. Perez said his goal was to work as an honest broker, protecting the investment of the city and the rights of workers. But in papers filed recently in state Superior Court, the hotel's owner says Perez's priorities were set by union halls, not city hall, and that Perez was a union puppet. The owner wants Perez to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit filed over whether city labor law should govern the dispute.

The legal dispute between Mayor Eddie A. Perez and the operators of the new Downtown Marriott Hotel will continue, as a state judge has refused the hotel's request to dismiss the case and said he needs to see more facts. Labor tensions at the new, state-built hotel and neighboring Connecticut Convention Center spilled over last summer, as unions seeking to organize employees at both facilities called for boycotts because they said they could not come to terms with the hotel management on how best to bring an employee vote on unionization.

The United Church of Christ will move its 2007 national convention out of Hartford if the dispute between labor unions and the operators of the Connecticut Convention Center is not resolved by June 6, and the organization has asked the governor to intervene. In a letter to Gov. M. Jodi Rell Monday, the organization -- an umbrella group of Congregational churches -- said that it will soon be forced to relocate its 8,000- to 10,000-person event scheduled for June 2007. Organizers say the event would use 18 area hotels for a week and could bring $10 million in economic benefit to the state.

As a simmering labor dispute at the state's new convention center heated up Thursday, Democratic Party officials, who have vowed not to cross a picket line, prepared to cross town instead. Instead of holding their state convention at Hartford's new jewel, Democrats are close to finalizing a deal to hold the May 20 event at the University of Hartford, where there will be neither a union dispute nor -- because the school's commencement is the next day and there's little time for cleaning up -- the party paraphernalia that give politics a bit more theater.

A headline on Page B1 Thursday incorrectly said an agreement Wednesday between union and management at Avery Heights retirement community in Hartford ended a strike there. The strike ended in January 2000. Wednesday's accord ended a labor dispute that had continued after the strike. Bankruptcy lawyer Christopher Snow served as law clerk for Robert Callahan when Callahan was chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. A story on Page E1 Monday incorrectly identified Callahan as Robert Clark.

Tickets for Whalers games at the Civic Center postponed by the labor dispute will be honored when the games are rescheduled, the team said Friday. The postponement of the NHL season until at least Oct. 15 affects two home games: Oct. 8 vs. Quebec and Oct. 12 vs. Florida. The policy includes season tickets and game-day tickets. For information, call (800) 942- 5377.

Like the ruling or not (most likely, some Old Saybrook leaders hate it), the state labor board has determined that town police officers laid off in 2003 were wronged and should be rehired. Officials can appeal the decision, but the interests of the town would be better served if leaders resolved to make amends and leave this rancorous period behind. The officers -- Brian Ziolkovski, Robert Scavello, Larry Smith and Cynthia Huckel -- were laid off in 2003 while their union was in the thick of a bitter contract dispute with the town.

A cloud hung over what AHL president Dave Andrews called "a celebration of hockey" Monday. The two-day AHL All-Star Classic wound down two days before the first cancellation of any North American professional league's entire season because of a labor dispute. Commissioner Gary Bettman is expected to announce Wednesday in New York there will be no 2004-05 NHL season. The lockout elicited disbelief and a bit of anger among those who have spent years trying to promote the game they love.